Main Event Day 1a | 2015 PokerStars.net APPT Season 9 Seoul

Player	Chips	Progress
Alex Ward	133,800 133,800	133,800
Tyler Jennens	101,900 28,900	28,900
Yunye Lu	101,100 101,100	101,100
Toan Nguyen	91,200 18,800	18,800
Jason Park	90,100 90,100	90,100
Quan Bin Zhong	88,900 88,900	88,900
Boris Li	86,799 86,799	86,799
Lkhagvaa Dugarbaatar	80,600 61,600	61,600
Bryan Huang	79,900 51,900	51,900

Justin Chan	79,200 79,200	79,200
Yang Wang	79,100 79,100	79,100
Shintaro Baba	77,500 77,500	77,500
Mick Woo	74,100
Tetsuya Tsuchikawa	73,300 73,300	73,300
Tai Zheng Tan	64,700 64,700	64,700
Aaron Lim	62,200 8,200	8,200

Alexander Jones	56,800 56,800	56,800
Tom Alner	51,200 30,700	30,700
Yaxi Zhu	49,600 12,600	12,600
Minh Nguyen	49,100 49,100	49,100
Battulga Mandakh	48,800 48,800	48,800
Vladimir Demenkov	47,100 2,900	2,900
Ping Lin	45,900 45,900	45,900
Jason Mo	44,000 23,000	23,000
Christopher Park	43,800 43,800	43,800

Player

Chips

Progress

Alex Ward

133,800

Tyler Jennens

101,900

28,900

Yunye Lu

101,100

Toan Nguyen

91,200

18,800

Jason Park

90,100

Quan Bin Zhong

88,900

Boris Li

86,799

Lkhagvaa Dugarbaatar

80,600

61,600

Bryan Huang

79,900

51,900

79,200

79,100

77,500

74,100

73,300

64,700

62,200

8,200

Alexander Jones

56,800

Tom Alner

51,200

30,700

Yaxi Zhu

49,600

12,600

Minh Nguyen

49,100

Battulga Mandakh

48,800

Vladimir Demenkov

47,100

2,900

Ping Lin

45,900

Jason Mo

44,000

23,000

Christopher Park

43,800

The first of two starting days of the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Season 9 stop in Seoul drew a crowd of 116 players with the United Kingdom's Alex Ward finishing out on top with 133,800 in chips.

South Korea's biggest tournament of the year had a stacked field on Day 1a, but many of the big names hit the rail early on. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was the biggest name in the field on Day 1a, as the French all-time money leader is not only famous in poker, but also a Starcraft player. Grospellier lived in Seoul for a few years during the heyday of his Starcraft playing days and speaks the language fluently, but none of that helped him in the tournament. Early on we caught Grospellier losing some pots, and before the halfway point he had hit the rail.

The other two former European Poker Tour winners, Ben Wilinofsky and David Vamplew, were on the wrong side of variance as well. Wilinofsky was among the first player to get knocked out when he ran into Kitty Kuo's quad tens. Kuo did manage to make it through the day, and she bagged up 27,400 at the end.

Defending champion Chane Kampanatsanyakorn showed up to defend his title, and he's still in contention for another amazing run. Before winning the event last year, Kampanatsanyakorn finished second in 2013 to Aaron Lim, and he finished the day on 17,100. Lim bagged up 62,200. Chane's brother, Chin, played as well, but he wasn't as fortunate. He got knocked out by Toan Nguyen.

Sam Cohen, who finished third in this event last year, had an awful start when her aces got cracked in a three-way all in. Cohen was left with just a few thousand chips, and while she managed to stay in for a bit, she didn't survive the day.

Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang had a day filled with swings, which isn't unexpected for Huang, and two hands in particular he will remember for a while. First, a player limp-shoved for 60 big blinds with ace-queen into Huang's kings. The kings didn't hold up and Huang lost a huge pot. A few hands later, Huang got his money in with ace-king against jacks, but his hand held up.

Huang survived the day with 79,900, which is a bit more than what American pro Jason Mo (44,000) bagged up.

Asia Player of the Year leader Yuguang Li and the defending winner of this title Pete Chen both got knocked out, while freshly-signed Team PokerStars Pro [Removed:532] bagged up 34,500.

The remaining 44 players from Day 1a will return on Saturday at 12 p.m. local time, but there will be plenty more coverage right here on PokerNews.com starting Friday at 12 p.m. for Day 1b.

Tags: Aaron Lim Ben Wilinofsky Bertrand Grospellier Bryan Huang Chane Kampanatsanyakorn Chin Kampanatsanyakorn David Vamplew Jason Mo Kitty Kuo Sam Cohen Toan Nguyen